Brand versus Branding: What's the Difference?

By RC Creatives I 15 April 2022 I Creative Blogs

Oftentimes when people talk about the two words, they often misunderstand or interchange meanings. But as brand or marketing communication designers, it is important that we know the difference, and the essence of each towards another.

A brand is the image collectively found in various products

Fundamentally, brands may be associated with products as it is the perception the surrounds it. A product is made by a company and can be purchased by a consumer in exchange for money, whilebrands are built through consumer perceptions, expectations, and

experiences with all products or services under a brand umbrella. Yet without a product, brands are unecessary. Products are instantly meaningful and useful to consumers because it serves a specific function for them, but on the other hand, brands become meaningful over time when consumers have a chance to experience it, build trust with it, and believe in it.

So what is a brand?

A brand is the definition consumers hold in their minds of your company and its products. It is created in two ways: by what you tell people and by what they experience.

A company or product becomes a brand when most of your market knows who you are. If more than half of your target market draws a blank when they are asked about you, you’d be better off referring to yourself as company that has a lot more marketing to do.

When a client purchases a product of particular brand, he has expectations that have actually been set by the online marketer while marketing the product, and it's needed that these expectations are satisfied by the product.

If the quality of product is constant throughout time, brand image stays in the heart of the customer. When new products are then introduced by the brand, customers have expectations from previous experiences with the brand and anticipate the same the very same or much more. It is very crucial for a product to satisfy these expectations.

Another simpler definition is this: A brand is not a logo, a promise, a product, or even an impression. A brand is a result. It is a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. Everything from the company mission statement, logo, color palette, and tone of voice all reflect a specific brand.

There is a direct relationship in between a product and its brand since a product is exactly what represents the brand. So if the product stops working, the brand experiences an obstacle; and one product that stops working can be deadly in the face of stiff competitors in the market.

How about branding?

We now come to the point where we define the brand from the branding. Some perceive that once you have a logo or icon, you already have branding - which in its real sense is false. So what is it really?

Branding is a marketing strategy that involves creating a differentiated name and image -- often using a logo and/or tag line -- in order to establish a presence in the consumer’s mind and attract and keep customers.

A brand is more than just a name, term, symbol, etc., but everything that one company's particular offering stands for in comparison to other brands in a product category.

Expanding to Brand Equity

After the smoke has been cleared, one will be led to ask: What is the image you want to imply in your product or brand? Do you compete, or stand above the rest? That's where the point of brand equity comes in. Brand equity is a brand's power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands.

Without the brand, a product is all empty and may seem like plain packaging.

Understanding Brand Value.

When all has been said, developed, branded, and done, we end up with the Brand Value. According to Seth Godin, creator of Yoyodyne and author of Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers ‘A brand’s value is merely the sum total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories and relationships of one brand over the alternatives.’

“Partly because the opposite of value is a commodity item with little or no perceived value — which means people are not seeking it out and when they do, it’s merely one of the many choices (so very likely the cheapest offering will get the sale."

And a common mistaken conclusion made by companies is they think ‘people are cheap’ and want only the best price. That’s only true if you’re only giving them the same dismal choices with no differentiation and thus no value. That is the exact point when consumers start to look at price.”

“It’s the job of every brand to seek that out as their standard; their stamp. That "valuable thing" is perceived as scarce. Not common. Available only to a few. It’s that rare thing that we each, as a result, perceive as valuable. ”

Branding unites all variations and representational forms of a product or service.

Remember, a brand is not a name or a logo or a colour scheme or a design layout or a tag line or an advertising theme. A brand lives in the customer’s perception. A brand is not what the marketer says it is; it’s what the customer thinks it is. A brand begins and ends with the customer, and most important to the customer’s perception is the customer experience. Customers will believe their own experience before they believe the advertising.

Sources:

https://aytm.com/blog/brand-product-difference/ https://www.communicationtheory.org/aida-model/

https://www.publicity.com/advicetips/when-does-a-product-become-a-brand-is-your-product-a-brand-probably-not/?cn-reloaded=1

Kevin Lane Keller, “Conceptualing, Measuring and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity”, Journal of Marketing 57 (January 1993)